The PirPanjal Railway Tunnel

Schwing Stetter India, a 100%
subsidiary of the Schwing Group
of companies GMBH, is partnering
Afcons in the making of Himalayan tunnel,
hailed as an engineering wonder. The
Udhampur - Srinagar - Baramulla Rail
Link (USBRL), a project of railway line
in Kashmir, is the biggest project in the
construction of a mountain railway since
independence. From Jammu to Baramulla,
length of the new rail line is 345 km.
Afcons has bagged three major segments
of Project T - 74 R , Project T - 74 R B
(South Portal), Project T - 49 B of the
USBRL project.

Construction Company
Today, Afcons Infrastructure Limited,
a part of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, is
one of the major construction companies
in India having presence in various parts of
the world. Afcons selected Schwing Stetter
India to be its partner in concreting the
Himalayan tunnels.Machine Supplier
Schwing Stetter India, a 100 per
cent subsidiary of the Schwing Group of
companies GMBH, is one of the pioneers
in manufacturing equipment for concrete
preparation, placement, transportation
and recycling. Concrete mixers,
concrete batching plants, concrete
pumps, concrete placer boom, mobile
concrete conveyor, concreting machines,
recycling plants, water chilling plant, and
weigh bridges are the company’s wellestablished
products in the market for
the past 18 years. Self-loading mixers
and sludge pumps are its newer range
of equipment that has been launched
recently. It caters to infrastructure
developers and also acts as an OEM
supplier to various cement companies
who offer ready mix concrete.
Schwing Stetter also provides after
sales, spares and services for its products.
In India, 27 sales, 10 service centre and 30
spares offices.Project Details
The PirPanjal Tunnel or the Banihal
railway tunnel is an 11,215 metres
(36,795 ft) long railway tunnel at the
PirPanjal Range of Himalayas in the state
of Jammu and Kashmir. The 11.215 km
long (7 miles) Banihal railway tunnel will
be India’s longest railway tunnel and Asia’s
second longest railway tunnel. It is located
in the North of the town of Banihal. The
great tunnel is located on the highest
mountain pass on the Eastern PirPanjal
range in middle of Himalayas.
This project perhaps, is the most
difficult railway line undertaken in the
Indian subcontinent. The terrain passes
through the Himalayas, which are full
of geological surprises and numerous
problems. This project has been subdivided
into 3 sections - Udhampur - Katra, Katra
- Quazigund and Quazigund - Srinagar -
Baramulla.
Out of these three, Katra - Quazigund
leg is the most difficult stretch of this
project. The alignment of this stretch
which is 129 km long passes through
Patnitop and PirPanjal ranges. In Katra -
Qazigund leg, the greatest engineering
challenges involve in crossing of the
Chenab river, which involves building a
1,315 metre (4,314 ft) long bridge at
359 metre (1,178 ft) above the river

bed and crossing of the AnjiKhad, which
involves building another 657 metre
(2,156 ft) long bridge at 186 metre (610
ft) above the river bed. The Chenab Bridge
will be the highest railway structure of its
kind in the world, 35-metre higher than
the tip of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Both bridges are to be span bridges.
Currently, construction work is in progress
in Banihal - Katra section. In construction
of Banihal - Katra section, Afcons has
bagged three major segments of Project
T - 74 R, Project T - 74 R B (South Portal),
and Project T - 49 B wherein Schwing
Stetter India equipment are in use at these
projects (Table 1). The schedule T 49 B is
divided into three locations such as Hingni,
Kundan and Arpinchla.
According to Schwing Stetter, “The
progress of concrete production, placing
without any hiccoughs has helped the
project to progress as per the schedule.
The process and the machines also

consumed relatively lower energy and
parts to achieve these results.” The
PirPanjal Railway tunnel is expected to be
completed by 2019.

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